PERPIGNAN (Web Desk) – The parents of a little boy in France have been banned from naming him Prince William or Mini Cooper.

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The ruling – which involves a child who cannot be identified due to legal reasons – was made in Perpignan in the south of France after a couple revealed their plans to name their son after Britain’s Duke of Cambridge.

However, prosecutors had the power to block the use of the name and called for a ban on the use of Prince William as an extended first name.

A French legal source explained to the ‘Daily Mirror’ newspaper that Article 57 of the civil code “allows judges to protect a child from a potential lifetime of mockery by overuling the parents”.

The couple in question are then said to have asked if they could name their little boy Mini Cooper, but the use of the name of the classic British car was also blocked.

The news comes after another French court was forced to ban parents of a baby girl from naming her Nutella earlier this year.

The couple were reportedly such big fans of the hazelnut spread that they wanted to make it part of the family.

However, a registrar who recorded the baby’s birth alerted a prosecutor after noticing the “irregular” name, who referred the case to a family court judge.